Bree-school and other updates on our peanut

Right after Labor Day we started a co-op type of preschool with several other families in the ward. Bree is the youngest of the group of 6 kids, but she has jumped right on in and loves to learn.  The other kids in our group are all the youngest kids of several large families and so the moms are all pretty laid back about what actually happens at "school".  This works out well as the expectations are low, so when I host at my house every 5 weeks most of the kids and parents are pretty thrilled that we accomplish a few things.  We have six kids in our group, but we rotate to 5 houses as there is a set of twins that are with us.  And each week we are taking a different letter and talking about it.  So far we have hosted at our house two times and have had the letters "C" and "H".  It's been fun to find books, crafts, activities, and snacks that help us talk about our letters.  I also like to sing rhymes and songs with the kids and work on counting a bit.  I've been told by two different kids now that our house is their favorite.  (Shhhh....don't tell the other moms!)  I think most of the other moms also do a fantastic job and Bree is getting a good experience outside of the house and learning to play and get along with others.  Outside of her co-op school, we work on the letters at home together and she has gotten through a good 2/3 of the alphabet.  She can recognize both upper and lower case letters of those letters and she's starting to learn how to identify beginning sounds in a word.  She can write her name and Finn's name and she begs every day to do more and more school.

One day her cousin Maci was talking about going to her preschool and she called it Bree-school.  Her mom shared that with me and I thought it was a perfect description of what we are doing here.  Bree loves school and she insists on having it every day of the week that she possibly can! 

Outside Ms. Charity's house for the first day of her co-op preschool

Working on alphabet flashcards with me one afternoon

Decorating our cookies for "c" week (I let the kids make a few different shapes, but required them to all do at least one letter of the ones they had already learned.  So, that's why you see the "b")

We had quite a mess of car troubles in September and so we spent a fair amount of time at the Honda dealer.  The first time we were there, there were these mounts for iPads but no iPads.  Just a few days later the iPads were there, thank goodness!

Bree insisted on taking this picture of me in the kitchen

For Bree-school we collected several preschool workbooks from friends (you know, the ones we buy at the start of summer with good intentions but then never get beyond the first 10 pages of so).  Some of the books had stickers and one in particular had lots of alphabet stickers.  Her cousin Maci had an alphabet shirt she had shown Bree, so Bree made her own alphabet shirt using the stickers for the letters that we had worked on at home up to that point.

This sweet girl has completely dropped naps, but in September she was still taking the occasional one.  One day she kept telling me she was tired and I was busy doing other things and then I noticed it was quite.  I found her in her bed asleep.  She is just so good!  I thought that if I had tried to lay her down it wouldn't work, but apparently she really meant it that day.

At the beginning of October my sweet pea got quite sick.  Finn had a version of this where he was running a fever and tired, but then he sprang back (after having a fever just in the evening a couple of nights).  After three days of fevers not really dropping below 100 even with tylenol and ibuprofen, I took Bree into the Urgent Care at our YMCA.  I was reminded why I told myself I would never take my kids to an Urgent Care (the pediatrician is what I should have done).  The doctor insisted on getting a urine sample to make sure she wasn't dehydrated (which she was) and then she gave me a prescription and a dose of medicine for her.  Of course she didn't tell us until afterward that the medicine was not the same as what she had wrote the prescription for, but was rather a dose of tylenol because Bree was fevery, but I had already given her a dose of tylenol just an hour and a half before (like I said, the fever wasn't coming down with the tylenol).  So, the doctor overdosed her on tylenol, ran a urine test that my insurance refused to pay for, and then diagnosed her with strep without actually running a strep test and gave her a prescription for azithromyacin.  Ugghhh....I debated on making another appointment for the next day at the pediatrician, but Bree was so sick that I decided trying the antibiotic couldn't hurt.  Within 12 hours of her first dose, she turned the corner, the fever dropped , and she was less lethargic and willing to actually drink something.  So, who knows?  Did she have strep?  We will never know.  But I'm glad she got better.  She got me really worried as she refused any liquid for days and just slept and slept.  I was glad to get my peanut back to normal.

We've had some time to play, just mom and Bree.  Her favorite place is the park.  And when it's nice out, I agree with her!

On Wednesday October 12 th the boys had a delay start and it was a dreary foggy cold day.  So, after dropping the boys off at school, Bree and I headed to the mall for some fun time together.  We visited the doggies at the pet store, had Chick-fil-a for lunch and Baskin Robbins for dessert.  We also stopped to look at some clothes for the boys and just enjoyed walking around and being together.

Finn's Update

Finn's schedule is full of all kinds of fun.  He is continuing his music class that he began last year and is doing a great job learning the piano and music theory.  He also has begun (finally!) weekly tennis lessons and is improving rapidly there.  He really enjoys tennis and looks forward to his Wednesday lesson every week.  He says he wants to be "really, really good" at tennis, so we will see what that means.  And on Saturdays he is still working on his swim lessons.  Mid-July he had a major setback with swimming and the last several months have been working on regaining his trust and confidence.  I was just about to toss in the towel last week and then he had a great lesson and was doing well.  It's honestly one week at a time with it, but I'm hoping he will get there.

In school, Finn is doing well.  His reading is progressing and he has recently found a love of Magic Treehouse Books.  They are still fairly difficult for him, so we work on reading them together slowly.  I'm just glad he has found something that he wants to read!  And in math his teacher says he is one of her top students.  He does a great job but I have to admit that when I try to help him at home I often do not understand his logic and reasoning.  Somehow he will get the correct answer (most of the time) but I have no idea how he got there doing what he was doing.  It's funny to me, as Kai and I tend to think and process the same way, but Finn's logic does not seem at all logical to me! 

He has finally lost his two front teeth.  He waited until the just fell out of his mouth.  The last day he could not eat at all and he could easily twist and manipulate this tooth.  The first of the two front teeth was actually lost on the Sunday of the Primary Program.  He sat through the program with a tissue as it was bleeding a bit and another family sitting towards the front of the chapel admitted to watching his tooth throughout the program--it was loose enough that they could tell!  We all thought it would come out during the program but it made it until opening exercises of primary the next hour.  Sheew!  I don't know what we would have done had he interrupted the program with his tooth issues!  

Our trip to the dentist occurred before he lost the front teeth and the hygienist was not impressed at all with his "brushing" of the front teeth.  The dentist had to tell her that it was probably hard to brush the front teeth with them being as wiggly as they were, which was exactly right.  And I should know since I'm the one that still brushes his teeth.

Finn has been swimming with Ms. Sophie and keeping a consistent teacher for the last two months has been very helpful.  She is very patient with him and he enjoys his time with her (for the most part).

The 1st grade sampler is a night for the kids to show their parents what they are learning in their "specials" classes.  We do mini-rotations and go to technology, library, art, music, PE, and counseling,  Finn was very excited for this night and the chance to take me to school and show me what he was doing.  He really is loving school, which is a welcome relief.

Another month, another shipment of medical supplies.  He has had a slew of health issues (mostly minor) these past two months.  But that is for another post.  

Of course, October was also Finn's birthday and so that deserves a post all on it's own.  As far as school and extra circular activities go, Finn is doing great, having fun, and contributing to running me around town like crazy.